Worst Company In America Round One: Bank Of America Vs. Chase

It hasn’t been a banner year for either of these banking bruisers. But has12 months of settlements over fraudulent mortgages, along with all that planning/canceling/reinstating of fees, left these fighters exhausted, or has it hardened them into true WCIA warriors?

And now that it’s the biggest bank in the nation, Chase seems out to prove it can be just as bad as BofA.

Both companies have been testing fees on debit cards, checking accounts and just about everything under the sun. Chase did away the rewards debit cards it has spent piles of cash marketing over the years, all while complaining about how swipe-fee reform would be the ruin of the entire U.S. banking system. Of course, we’ll never know since Chase and its ilk managed to convince lawmakers to neuter those changes.

While we received mounds of personal stories on why these two banks should each move on to the next round, a couple of readers managed to sum up their feelings rather succinctly (and, amazingly, without resorting to profanity).

“I have never HATED my mortgage company before, but I do now,” writes Lori, who isn’t exactly a fan of having to pay up to $21 in fees — not to mention fielding daily calls from BofA — just for making her mortgage payment within the grace period.

While Tracy’s feelings about Chase are confined to, “I don’t even believe in the antichrist and I am convinced Chase is it.”

But, as is the nature of such competitions, only one of these two banks can move on to the next round. So choose, but choose wisely.

VOTING FOR THIS POLL IS NOW CLOSED. CONGRATS TO BANK OF AMERICA — WE’LL SEE YOU IN THE SWEET 16!

I really wanted to vote for the Federal Reserve bank, but since that wasn‚Äôt on the ballot, BoA was the obvious choice. Since BoA is one of the heads of the hydra of the Federal Reserve, this makes sense. As long as Chase or BoA wins the Golden Poo award, I‚Äôm satisfied.

This is the problem, people mostly don’t know what the Federal Reserve is and what they do. They like to keep secrets about their activities since all hell would break loose. I’d advise not going down this rabbit hole; it will disturb you.

This is the problem, people mostly don’t know what the Federal Reserve is and what they do. They like to keep secrets about their activities since all hell would break loose. I’d advise not going down this rabbit hole; it will disturb you.

I get why these were paired together but I wish Chase could make it to another round. I moved away from Chase when they started nickel and diming me. Went to a local credit union who actually gives a crap about their customers, and I’ve been happy ever since.

I’ve never understood this whole “grace period” thing. Calling it that makes it sound like it’s OK to pay late. News flash: if you pay after the day it’s due, it’s late and often there is a fee for paying late. (not commenting on Lori’s situation per se, just venting)

I have to say BofA. I can’t complain about Chase, yet, as I have a Chase Freedom card and get 5% cash back on certain categories, and I got $200 just for signing up and spending $500 in a certain time frame. So far, so good and no problems.

During the financial crisis period, Chase was the only bank I know of that raised many’s credit card rates, and didn’t give an opt out. Most banks allowed you to close the account and pay off at the lower rate. Sticking people with a 30% rate was unconscionable. BOA didn’t even raise my rate at all during the same period.

I will not do business with Chase due to this. I think they should have gotten beaten up for it more than they did. 30% with no opt out. Crazy bad.

It wasn’t retroactive because they only changed the rate going forward, but it was on things that people already charged. They had no choice and I don’t believe it was illegal, because they pointed to the we can change rates at any time, at our whim small print.

Nearly all banks that raised rates like this allowed for the closing of the account to keep the lower rates. Chase was one of the very few that did not. Citi raised my rate, but allowed me to opt out, they even allowed me to use the card at the lower rate until the card expired about a year later. Some people with other cards got stuck though, mostly due to not reading their notification, but some that thought “losing thier oldest credit line” was worth it. At least they had a choice, but not many Chase customers.

A few years back Chase kept hiking up my CC rates. When I couldn’t make my monthly payments they actually worked with me. I can’t use the card anymore, but they’re letting me pay it off with low monthly payments at some ridiculously low interest rate.

Definitely a vote for BoA for me. I might be one of the few…but I have a Chase Sapphire Preferred and have had nothing but good experiences with them. It might have something to do with the fact I’ve received quite a few free trips due to that card…but all the times I’ve had to call they’ve been super friendly and helpful. I can’t speak to their general banking accounts but I’m happy with the service I have!

I think the reason banks are so bad at customer service is because most of their profits come from the Federal Reserve. And the Federal Reserve‚Äôs profits come from tax payers. The distinction is that as tax payers, we have no influence on the banks or the Federal Reserve. Banks only have to hire good lobbyists to bribe‚Ä¶ I mean, influence politicians/law makers to use tax payer money for bailing them out of financial gambling, such as naked CDS. Also, they have access to low interest loans where they can buy treasury bonds and make a tidy profit in the margin between what they pay for interesting and what the government (read taxpayers) pays them in interest. In short, retail customers are nothing more than a chinese laundry fa√ßade for the real business of defrauding the tax payers. But that‚Äôs just my opinion.

If you have Ghostery installed, go to the settings in the top menu and uncheck PollDaddy from the list of blocked bugs. Refresh your browser a couple of times and the voting box should show up again. Just fixed it for me in Firefox.

I really can’t decide on this one and here’s why: My little brother’s in college, so his BofA bank account is linked to my dad’s BofA account, and they have overdraft protection so that if my brother overdrafts, the money comes out of my dad’s account. Last Saturday, my brother was out of town. He gets an email notification on his phone early in the morning that he overdrafted by roughly $200. He’s very confused because he hasn’t written any checks or used his debit card all week, and additionally he’s sitting on roughly $500 in his account.

So he calls BofA, and after some back and forth, they come to the conclusion that someone had deposited a check for almost $700 at a Chase Bank in Atlanta, and the teller fat-fingered the checking account number, so the money came out of my brother’s account. In fact, the BofA employee was able to see the scan of the check attached to my brother’s account and verified it most definitely did not come from my brother (different name/address/etc).

So BofA tells my brother that they have to physically mail a form to Chase for them to verify that this was a mistake, and that they can’t recredit the money to his account until Chase does their part. They said if he hadn’t heard anything by Wednesday to call back. My brother then calls Chase, but Chase refuses to work with him at all on the grounds that he’s not a customer. He actually got the guy on the phone who did the transaction (since it had happened just a few hours earlier), but couldn’t go any further and so must wait until Wednesday.

My brother knows the name of the guy whose account the money was supposed to come out of because the check image finally loaded to his online BofA account (and this means he also has this guy’s address and account/routing numbers). He found the guy on Facebook and is considering sending him a message to see if he can help out since he’s actually a Chase customer, but he doesn’t want to freak the guy out since, you know, my brother does have a lot of this guy’s personal banking information (even though my brother would never use it. I know I’d be alarmed if a stranger contacted me with that kind of info).

Thankfully my brother had just deposited $400 extra the day before this happened that hadn’t posted yet, and my dad’s very understanding about the whole thing and was able to transfer additional money in my brother’s account to cover his bills until this gets sorted out, but it really sucks.

Maybe starting for next year we can track the “records” for each company. Every negative story done on you gets you a “win”. For every positive story you get a “loss” Then we have a win percentage so we can create brackets that are based on win/loss instead of having financial industry compete against itself.

I left Chase a couple of years ago for a Schwab investor checking account a couple of years ago, and gennerally like the sevice i get from them, that being sad B of V gets my vote becuase i’ve got some frinds who bank with them, and I get to hear any number of horror stories abou them on a rehular basis.

I am a BoA customer only because BoA bought out Nationsbank, who bought out NCNB Texas, who bought out RepublicBank Texas, who bought out National Bank of Fort Sam Houston. Let’s see‚Ä¶ what else did BoA buy? Oh yeah, Countrywide. Right before the economy collapsed. So much for “higher standards.”

It looks to me like BoA may be a shoe in this year. They got a big jump out out of the gate and have a strong tail wind helping them along.

My mortgage was sold to BoA last year, so far they haven’t managed to screw it up. But I still quite a few years to go. Hopefully a silver last year and then the gold this year will send some kind of wake up call to their arrogant management who should be in jail for the disaster they helped inflict with their greed.